Restoring a liberal Minnesota voice

Published Tuesday, July 07, 2009

The eight-month political purgatory that comedian Al Franken served before finally becoming Democratic senator-elect from Minnesota was no laughing matter. His disputed challenge to the incumbent, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, was a draining affair for both men, resolved only by the state's Supreme Court ruling that Franken had won fair and square.

The political consequences of the outcome can be significant. Franken will give the Democrats a 60-vote majority in the Senate for the first time in 31 years, and theoretically a filibuster-proof bloc enabling President Obama to work his will in that body.

It's only theoretical because two Senate Democrats, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts are seriously ailing, and their presence on the Senate floor has been spasmodic and will be uncertain as close and critical votes come up for decision.

That is so also because individual other Democrats may see fit to vote against the Obama administration on certain issues, depending on how they square with each senator's political, regional or ideological interests.

For Minnesotans, Franken's becoming their junior senator as an unvarnished and vocal anti-war liberal is particularly noteworthy. His election returns to that narrowing Senate club the seat held by Democrat Paul Wellstone until his death in a small plane crash barely a week before the 2002 election, in which he was seeking a third term.

Wellstone had been perhaps the Senate's most vociferous and forceful voice against President George W. Bush's thinly veiled march toward war in Iraq.

His death deprived the small but vocal band of Democrats in the Senate seeking to prevent that war, as well as an urgent pleader for a range of other liberal positions.

His death, coming virtually on the eve of the Senate election, brought not only grief but political panic to Minnesota Democratic leaders. In a desperate lunge to save the seat, they persuaded a state icon, former Vice President and 1984 presidential nominee Walter Mondale, to take Wellstone's place on the ballot.

It seemed like a smart political move, returning Mondale to the Senate where earlier he had served with distinction. But what was to be a solemn memorial to Wellstone's memory, attended by 20,000 people at a University of Minnesota auditorium, turned into an unabashed political rally that offended many Minnesotans regardless of political affiliation.

Particularly offensive to them was a rousing speech by Wellstone campaign treasurer Rick Kahn. Apparently speaking to Republican officeholders in the crowd, he said: "Can you hear your friend calling you one last time to step forward on his behalf to keep his legacy alive and help us in this election for Paul Wellstone?"

Others, including Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin from neighboring Iowa, added stirring political pitches to the clamor, and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi was booed as he sought to play his respects to Wellstone. Gov. Jesse Ventura, an independent, walked out in protest.

Phone calls flooded Minnesota radio and television stations. The victim in all this turned out to be Mondale, and the beneficiary was Coleman, who narrowly beat the former vice president in the election five days later.

Ironically, Coleman was a one-time Democrat with a somewhat liberal voting record who backed Wellstone for reelection in 1996. But later that year he switched to the Republican Party and eventually became a strong and consistent supporter of Bush on the Iraq invasion that took place in his first year in the Senate.

In putting "the Wellstone seat" back in the hands of Franken, the Minnesota court's decision had to be sweet revenge for the revered, fiery late senator's staunchest faithful. Few will expect, however, that the one-time standup comic of "Saturday Night Live" fame will fill the shoes of Wellstone, a former college professor, in terms of intellectual vigor.

A major challenge for Franken in the Senate will be to overcome his image as little more than a super-partisan wise guy adept at ridiculing the Republican right wing. Radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh, a favorite Franken target, should have field day in what could be a diversion from the new senator's necessary transformation into a serious legislator.